UJIA Yoni Jesner Award

Communal responsibility and social action through schools

UJIA is raising the community leaders of tomorrow, through an exciting educational programme that will instil them with communal responsibility based on values such as chesed (kindness).

UJIA's Yoni Jesner Award (YJA) aims to encourage as many young Jewish students as possible to involve themselves in volunteering projects as part of their Jewish journey. We aim to create a community wide award scheme with an annual ceremony for all participants and encourage students to see volunteering as a life-long commitment. For UJIA the YJA is a further rung in offering a ladder of Jewish leadership and communal responsibility. The award scheme joins UJIA myfund -- the innovative teen philanthropy project -- in a continuum of programmes developing leadership skills and values. These include training the leadership of youth movements and the Union of Jewish Students; the Adam Science Leadership Programme; the Ashdown Fellowship for educational leadership and more.

The YJA is the brainchild of UJIA Head of Social Responsibility, Elaine Robinson, and is an award scheme that was originally launched at Immanuel College in conjunction with the Yoni Jesner Foundation in September 2006.

The scheme is dedicated in memory of Yoni Jesner, a Bnei Akiva leader who was tragically killed in a bus bomb in Tel Aviv in September 2002. He was committed to encouraging young people to do as many acts of chesed (kindness) as possible, and was a truly inspirational role model for many young people.

Run through Jewish Day Schools, pupils aged 11-14 years old, will be encouraged to complete a certain amount of voluntary hours within, and importantly, outside of the Jewish community throughout the academic year.

Elaine Robinson comments, "UJIA's Yoni Jesner Award will educate and motivate the participants and show the power of social action. Charity can be given in many different forms and volunteering is a powerful way that one person can make a difference. The scheme will connect young people to the exciting and uplifting world of non-profit organisations, while deepening their understanding of their social obligations as citizens driven by their Jewish values and learning."

The project launched at King Solomon High School and will be rolled out across Jewish schools across the next few months. Confirmed schools include Hasmonean, Yavneh and Jewish Free School (JFS).